Oh goodness do my girls love pickles! I can never resist them either- especially the huge whole ones you sometimes see in gourmet deli sections? Those always take me back to my childhood.
This summer I decided to add Homemade Pickles to our Summer Fun list because I thought my kid’s would get a kick out of making something they love so much.
These pickles are crazy easy to make. I believe there are two types of people- bread and butter pickle people and dill pickle people. We are firmly on the dill side so these are nice and briney and salty and dilly and delicious!
Best of all they literally take minutes to put together.
The only challenge with making pickles is to find the right kind of cucumber. I bought our cucumbers from the Farmer’s Market. You want lovely cucumbers that don’t have the gross wax-y stuff on the skin like you sometimes see at the grocery store and you don’t want standard English cucumbers or cucumbers. You want to try and find the smaller cucumbers.
I bought pickling cucumbers at the Farmer’s Market this year.
Here is the recipe I used- this makes enough for (2) large mason jars of brine to soak your pickles in. I made the jar above of pickles that were sliced into spears and then the two extra whole cucumbers I put in a second jar with the remainder of the brine.
I had 6 cucumbers in total and these pickling cucumbers are roughly 4-5 inches in size.
- Cucumbers
- 3½ cups water
- 1/ ¼ cups vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 2 cloves garlic minced or cloves
- Peppercorns (this is to taste but about 20 per jar)
- Fresh dill
- Start by cutting the cucumbers to your preference- into chips, spears or keep them whole.
- Add the water and vinegar to a saucepan over high heat and bring to boil.
- Add the sea salt.
- Remove from heat and let cool.
- Add the fresh dill into a large mason jar.
- Add the pickles in chips or spears or whole and cram as many as you can fit in the jar.
- Next add the whole garlic or minced garlic to the jar.
- Add the peppercorns to the jar.
- Once the vinegar and water has cooled completely- dump it over the cucumbers in the jar.
- Seal the jar with a very tight lid and shake to mix all the ingredients together.
- Pop in the fridge for 24-72 hours and Boom! All done.
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I have found these are ready to eat a day later but the dill-y flavor will just get more intense as time passes so about 3 days is ideal. After 3 days I like to remove the dill as it gets a little soggy but I do leave the peppercorns and the garlic in the brine.
I found these pickles to be delicious and very crispy- so a perfect summer treat! If you do slice them they will get more of the seasoning. When I leave the pickles whole they tend to have a more subtle flavor.
These should last a few weeks in the fridge and they would be a great homemade gift idea!
Here are a few other recipes you might like:
Avocado Lime Spread– use this on burgers or sandwiches for a healthy alternative to Mayo!
*Recipe adapted from All Recipes.
I was just looking for a pickle recipe, and here it is. My kids love them and I wanted to have my 5 year old help me make some 🙂
BTW – I will never understand those sweet pickle people, haha!
This may be a silly question… But..
How much dill did you use and just plain white vinegar?
Hi HJ- I used the container from the store– about 70% of it. You really can’t go wrong because you just want to shove a bunch of dill in so you don’t have to be exact. I would have put more in but I was out of space in the jar 🙂
This was the container I used- it says .66 oz so I guess I used about .45 oz.
http://www.safeway.com/ShopStores/O-Organics/OOHerbs.page
And yes just plain white vinegar!
ha ha! I hope this one works out for y’all Nicole. Let me know!
Yum!! I love pickles. Thanks for the recipe.
These look so pretty! You need to enter them in the county fair for sure. I haven’t made pickles for a while, and you’ve inspired me. Thanks for linking up at Wonderful Wed. Blog Hop. Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow
Thanks for coming and linking up at #The Weekend Social. Please be sure to come back next week starting Thursdays at 9PM EST on KitchenDreaming.com ! I hope to see you there!
Have you have canned this recipe?
Kim,
Sorry I have not canned these.
I am currently waiting for my pickles to pickle! I live in China and refuse to pay $7 a jar for pickles so I decided to try this. I don’t know anything about pickling and had to substitute main ingrediants
What if all you have is the dill you find in the spice section of the store. Like its already separated from the stems. Its little tiny flakes. How much do you use and how do you remove it
If you can’t find fresh dill you can use dill seed. 1-2 tsp. dill seed.
Thanks for the tip Marjie!
Hello,
Love this recipe and instructions! Can I use Apple Cider Vinegar with this? Thanks!!
Hmm. I haven’t tried it Amanda.
Here is an article I found that might help:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/food/food-safety/preserving/pickling/vinegar-for-pickling/
As for canning these pickles, this is the recipe my Mom used to use. She didn’t let the water and vinegar mixture cool all the way, she put it in the jars warm, not hot. As the mixture cooled it sealed the lids on the mason jars. The pickles lasted for a long time because they were sealed. Hope this helps!
This is a great recipe. Please tell me how many lbs. of cucumbers for your recipe. Many thanks.
What kind of vinegar did you use?
Just plain white vinegar Karina. 🙂
Love this! My family loves dills as well. How long do yours last in the fridge once you’ve made them? Thank you for sharing!
Hi Billy,
Several weeks works fine!
Charlene